Led by senior Margo Finstad’s two-run homer and freshman Leah Wilson’s grand slam, the Greyhounds powered past the Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton Bulldogs 15-0 at Harman Park.

The game ended after four innings due to the 15-run lead rule.

Wilson, who just homered Thursday evening in the conference title game, hit her fourth varsity home run of the season with her grand slam in the third inning Friday.

Wilson, who was called up to varsity less than two weeks into the season, has been a big boost to the lineup so far and hasn’t slowed down.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Leah Wilson (11) runs home to her teammates after her grand slam in the third inning of a nonconference softball game against Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton on Friday at Harman Park in New Ulm.

“I go in very focused,” Wilson said. “I usually cancel out every kind of noise and my dad is definitely one of my top helpers with my hitting. He fixes every little thing, and then when I go out here, that’s what I like to show.”

Wilson’s grand slam came in a third inning that saw 16 plate appearances for the Greyhounds and 10 hits. She finished 2 for 2 with her grand slam and a single, while Finstad was 2 for 2 with her home run, four RBIs and a walk.

Ava Schmid also was 2 for 2 with a double and three RBIs to help lead the Cathedral bats.

After dropping the conference title game to Cleveland, a game that saw Cathedral trail 6-0 after the first inning and come back to fall 10-6, Friday was a good way to reset and get back on track before playoffs.

“We went into yesterday not wanting to show [Cleveland] too much,” Greyhounds head coach Jamie Kuehn said. “We went with Abbey [Hillesheim] to see what they would do with her. It was kind of experimental for us anyways, so we didn’t go into with crazy-high expectations, we wanted to see what was up. Today’s a good confidence boost to get the girls rolling again. We’ve kind of had some slow starts with our bats to games, and this was nice to see them jump on it right away in the first inning.”

Jump the Greyhounds did.

After starting pitcher Jayde Altermatt had a 1-2-3 first inning, Wilson had a ground-ball single into left. A bunt by Thea Paszkiewicz to move Wilson up did the job and ended up as a single for Paszkiewicz. Another bunt by Altermatt was fielded and thrown to third, but every runner was safe for Schmid, whose sac fly made it 1-0. Finstad then singled in another two runs for a 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the third, a leadoff walk by Paszkiewicz put the wheels in motion for the Greyhounds. A sac bunt and error allowed Altermatt to reach and Paszkiewicz to take second and third before Schmid doubled down the line in right to make it 5-0. Finstad then sent a homer over the fence in left, throwing her hands up with a smile towards Kuehn on her way to third.

Bulldogs starting pitcher Ryleigh Donner was able to force a flyout, but Shay Wilfahrt kept the hits coming for the Greyhounds shortly after with a single into center. A dropped pop fly by the shortstop allowed Brynn Wilfahrt to reach, before an error at third put Ava Krueger on and loaded the bases. That’s when Wilson sent a pitch over the fence in left to make it 11-0, ending Donner’s day in the circle and as Raylen Blasing took over to pitch.

Another error allowed Paszkiewicz to reach and a walk by Avery Fischer was followed with a single by Schmid. Maddy Hazuka, who was courtesy running for Paszkiewicz, was tagged out at home on the single as Fischer moved to third and Schmid took second. A walk to Finstad brought Abbey Hillesheim to the plate, who singled in two runs for a 13-0 lead.

Altermatt finished with three innings of work in the win, allowing just one walk and no hits while striking out four. Fischer, an eighth-grader, pitched the fourth and struck out two.

Ava Krueger and Morgan Beranek walked to start the bottom of the fourth. Krueger scored on grounder hit by Hazuka that led to an error at second. Beranek was later tagged out at home after a wild pitch, but Hazuka ended up scoring the game-ending run on another wild pitch moments later.

The Greyhounds finished with eight hits in the game while holding JWP without a hit. The Greyhounds also played errorless ball, while the Bulldogs had six errors.

“It definitely helps when the energy of the team is going with the rest of the game, even when we’re down like we came back against Cleveland,” Wilson said. “Even though we didn’t win it, we still fought back and we didn’t give up. This game, we kind of stayed at our game and didn’t go down to their level.”

The Greyhounds, now 19-4, were seeded third in the Section 2A playoffs this year and open the tournament with a 5 p.m. home game Tuesday against No. 14-seeded Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther at Harman Park.